Olesia Klevchuk's Blog

Russia is the largest market in Europe, with a population of more than 140 million people. Russia has a highly urbanized population, it has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, and its GDP per capita is higher than in any other BRIC market— all of which are important assets for long-term growth. Today, we publish our first report on this market — “An Introduction To The Russian Consumer” — using Forrester’s Russian Consumer Technographics® data to explore some key trends in technology adoption, including the following:

Internet and PC adoption in urban Russia is making a promising start. Internet usage in Russia has seen rapid growth over the past few years. Today, almost 60 million Russians are online, making it the second-largest Internet market in Europe after Germany. As fewer than half of Russians are online, it has huge potential for growth. Internet adoption is highest among younger Russians, but there is a very sharp decline for older generations. Social networking is one of the top online activities in Russia.

The mobile Internet is a popular way to get online in urban Russia. Nearly every urban Russian owns a mobile phone. The speed with which Russian consumers are adopting mobile technologies and advanced mobile activities is starting to change the way that businesses communicate with consumers. Mobile Internet penetration in urban Russia is already in line with the European average, with one in five urban Russians regularly accessing the Internet on their phones.

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Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® is growing! And we have just filled in a big space in our global map with Russian Technographics. There is probably no need to explain why Russia is an important market. It has a population of 140 million, with almost three-quarters living in urban areas. Russian consumers have the highest disposable income out of all BRIC markets, and cities like Moscow and St Petersburg are full of well-educated, Western-oriented consumers whose income is around three times the national average. Apart from demographics, there are other factors that make Russian consumers appealing, interesting, and unique:

Their love for technology. According to Forrester Technographics segmentation, 60% of Russians are technology optimists. To put this in perspective, this is considerably higher than any other European markets we survey. Already, 65% have a home PC, and Internet penetration has reached 56%. Broadband adoption is lagging behind at 37%;these numbers are below the European average. However, where Russians are missing on the PC ownership and Internet connection, they compensate with mobile phones: Almost every urban Russian today owns a mobile phone, and almost one in five use the mobile Internet.

Although not the first online tracker, the free Palm Trend Tracker is definitely an interesting and useful addition to the mix. The tracker trends the buzz on Twitter and displays the top 30 tweets. At the same time these can be customised and allows you to see conversations on any topic you need.

The site displays the current and emerging trends on Twitter, real time tracking and the location of the tweets. The idea is simple – to let you know in advance of raising topics on Twitter.

The ability to track the emerging and available trends will be helpful for those who use Twitter to market their ideas, products or services.